The Last Black Unicorn

(Ann) #1

High school was way better for me.
I went to a school called El Camino Real. It was 3
percent black. It was mostly white and Hispanic and Asian
—and pretty much all of them were rich.
I got bused from South Central LA. I woke up every
morning about 5 a.m. to catch the bus at 6:15. I had to walk
to the bus stop in the cold every morning. I mean, this is
LA, so it’s not like there was snow. But for me, sixty degrees
is freezing.
What was funny about high school was that all the things
that got made fun of in elementary school, they were valued
in high school. I was a great talker and had a unique style
—“poor as fuck chic”—these were good qualities in a rich
suburban school, where everyone else was the same. I stood
out.
But the truth is, the main reason I ended up being
successful in high school was because of everything I did
while trying to get with this one dude, Audie.
I was stalking him. I would send him candygrams.
Remember candygrams? I sent him A LOT of candygrams. I
gave him a Snickers every week, till we was in twelfth grade.
ͳat dude probably has a mouth full of cavities because of
me. I would try to write him notes, but I was illiterate, so
everything was wrong. It was the worst:
“Audie, yo how bout we date er som fing?”
I was in ninth grade, and straight up I could not read or
write.
I could only read three-letter words or things you see on

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